


Hyperdontia and the Intrepid Flower

by PuppyLuver256



Category: Smile For Me (Video Game)
Genre: Cosmos is the name of my Flower Kid, Dentistry, Gen, Hyperdontia, Mild Blood, Mute Flower Kid (Smile For Me)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-19 08:17:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22808062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuppyLuver256/pseuds/PuppyLuver256
Summary: The little flower brat has cheered up everyone in the Habitat, and they're coming after Habit next. He's got plans for them and their teeth, but he'll also discover a nasty little secret hiding in there...
Relationships: Flower Kid & Dr. Boris Habit
Comments: 7
Kudos: 55





	Hyperdontia and the Intrepid Flower

Sure. Send the mute teenager to make peace with the very obviously unstable doctor running this place. What could _possibly_ go wrong, they had thought when they agreed to Kamal’s request.

Ever since Cosmos had first come to the Habitat, there had been three lingering frustrations nagging at them the entire time. One, they were unable to communicate with anyone beyond simple yes-no responses and hinting with items they had gathered because they could not speak whatsoever (birth defect with the vocal cords, or that’s how they remembered the doctor explaining it at least) and it seemed that no one here knew even a rudimentary amount of sign. Two, the proprietor of this so-called mental health retreat was becoming increasingly agitated at them basically doing his job for him, and to be fair they couldn’t exactly blame him but the passive-aggressive PSAs were completely unnecessary. And the third was that... _uncomfortable_ lingering pressure in their mouth, which they had been dealing with since long before they’d arrived.

They knew that what was going on in there _wasn’t normal_ , not in the slightest, and if they had reasonable parents it probably would’ve been dealt with by now. Unfortunately they got saddled with a mom who, while otherwise well-meaning, insisted on fooling herself into thinking that oils squeezed from plants that they were already allergic to could cure all ills. Sorry, mom, your precious pyramid scheme can’t get rid of this. If only they weren’t a minor, they could’ve gotten someone to fix this by now...

Even here, at the Habitat, they couldn’t get anything done in regards to their own problems. Essentially they had ended up helping everyone else with _theirs_ , mainly because Dr. Habit wasn’t doing the job he’d advertised until whatever this “big event” was, and also partly because they both literally and figuratively couldn’t say no to someone with an issue that they could presumably solve. So they ended up running around and doing all kinds of both normal and crazy errands. Give a kid a flower. Help a painter give an appropriate gift to his crush, then tell him to back the hell off. Get a memento for a clown’s former love. Harass a vampire and make him out himself to everyone. Gather garbage together to make “food”. Punch nearly everyone at least once. Help not one but two fathers reconcile with their children. Chase a god damn owl around the carnival late at night, then be forced to watch one of those creepy “bedtime stories” when they inevitably couldn’t get back to their room before collapsing from exhaustion. Take a picture of an ass. And on and on and on.

So when Kamal had asked them that they go to see the doctor and try to get him back to his senses in his stead, they just figured it was a little step up from what they had already been doing. They wanted to ask him why he couldn’t confront Habit himself, especially as he was clearly worried about the guy’s gradually worsening mental well-being, but he clearly wouldn’t do well with confrontation and was still understandably upset with him. Not to mention that even if they hadn’t put two and two together, they wouldn’t have been able to ask anyway because... _obvious_.

And now here they were, strapped to a dentist’s chair and unable to move their body aside from their head. They were higher than a kite on what was presumably a huge all-encompassing cloud of laughing gas, and even in their compromised state they could see the not-so-good doctor was looming over them, grinning smugly as he began to explain to them the full extent of his plans. They weren’t really paying attention to him, just nodding whenever he asked a question. The nitrous haze surrounding them couldn’t do much to ease their panic. They could feel a constant tugging at the sides of their mouth, unable to close it no matter how hard they tried, and to make matters worse they _couldn’t_ feel the cloth of the mask they usually wore. Where was it? Habit must have removed it, then put on whatever object was keeping their mouth open. Oh god...he was gonna _see_ them...or maybe he already had...?

“Listen up close: It all has to start with a smile,” Habit said in a pleased, somewhat condescending manner. “ONE smile can turn in2 DOZENS or even HUNDREDS. And maybe, just Maybe...if you hadd a smile bbig enoughhh...” He smiled as wide as he could, wider than should be possible. “ _...you could cheer up the Whole World._ ” God, there were _so many damn teeth_. More teeth than they’d ever seen on one person with their own unaided eyes. Probably enough to fill two or three extra mouths, and his words implied that he absolutely got them from someone else. The doctor chuckled a little at seeing their widening eyes. “I need More teeth, flower child,” he told them darkly, as if he didn’t freaking have enough already. He began to lean closer to them, dental pliers in hand. “That’s the Only way I can Get the Globe ‘2’ Gr—”

As soon as he’d managed to get a good look inside Cosmos’s mouth, he let out a small yelp of surprise and backed off. Yup. He saw them. All the extra teeth that they themself had, those horrid things that had grown in as part of some joke of a universe that apparently thought it was funny that they were already mute and allergic to umpteen dozen things, including their mother’s profession that they were coerced to support. “ _Izvinite menya?_ ” Habit muttered under his breath in mild shock. “ _Chto za khren’?_ ” Under normal circumstances Cosmos probably would’ve been curious what language that was or he’d actually said, but right now they were terrified and confused and much more high than they would ever like to be.

“So, that ex-planes ev-er-y-thing...” Habit laughed again, this time a bit more nervously. “Welly-well, no ‘matter’! A littol natural hyper-dont-chia just meanns More 4 the takeing! Shurley you womt mind, rite??”

With very little warning, he shoved the pliers into their mouth and began the extraction. It was quicker work than one might expect. One by one teeth began exiting their mouth, each placed on the tray beside them for safe-keeping. Cosmos could taste copper. They weren’t sure if that was lingering laughing gas smell or blood pooling in their mouth, and they couldn’t tell whether or not that vague gargling sensation they could feel in the back of their throat was saliva. Soon enough the bottom ones were gone, aside from the ones that were supposed to be there, and they felt their head forced back a bit as he began to remove the ones from the top. Eventually all the excess were removed, and Habit had managed to remove one of the front teeth before he just...stopped. “I...I’ll be back in a moment, Flower Brat,” he said, standing up from his stool and heading to the door. “You just Sittight.”

“ _Sit tight_ ”, he says...yeah, like they were gonna do that. The very second Habit was gone and they heard the door close, they began to look around for a way to escape. They also took the time to let out all the fluid pooling in their mouth, a small puddle of blood and saliva forming onto the floor beside them as a result. Not exactly the best time or place to worry about cleanliness. They noticed as they emptied their mouth that the strap holding down their right arm was loose. Perfect. That was the one that could reach the tray once they got it freed, and there was a small mirror that would help them look around better. They grabbed it and used it to look behind them, where some numbers were scribbled onto the wall, the same numbers on the buttons they could see on the wall in front of them. Code, maybe? Only one way to find out.

Grimacing from both the dull ache in their jaws and the only gruesome option they could see, they grabbed a few of their extracted teeth and started chucking them at the buttons, that code on the back wall in their mind. They were surprised they could both remember that code, backwards, and chuck the teeth with enough force and accuracy to actually hit the buttons given their current condition, but they managed regardless and were soon freed from the chair. They immediately bolted to the door, but it was shut tight with no visible knob or mechanism. At least, not directly on the door itself. They had noticed a crank up above through that little mirror, so with energy they didn’t know they still had they climbed up their and began to turn it until the door was open just wide enough for them to fit through. Once they were confident they could squeeze through, they grabbed the bouquet they’d been carrying with them the whole time they were there and ran.

As soon as they got into the next room, they felt his presence and heard his shouting. Apparently he didn’t expect them to actually try and _escape_ , what a _shocker!_ They weren’t paying attention to his monologuing, their brain still foggy from the lingering gas and that dull ache becoming more noticeable, but whatever he was saying his mannerisms seem to be goading them on, as if daring them to stop him.

And so they did. The best way they knew how from years of experience.

The lily.

It was more instinct than anything. They had reached into their bouquet to just grab whatever, but as soon as their fingers brushed that lily they knew it would work. They pulled it out and practically shoved it into Habit’s face. The change in his mannerisms was nearly instant. He became much less manic, more reserved, realizing that someone had actually taken the time to read his life’s story and piece details from it together to reunite him with his old friend, or at the very least a flower of the exact same species. It didn’t take too long before the two of them came to an understanding (or rather Cosmos let Habit get his thoughts out to someone who would finally listen), and by the time he had finished talking and allowed them to take their leave, they could tell he was going to get better. They could imagine his newfound happiness radiating around him just as they had with everyone else, almost so vividly that they could see it.

As Cosmos made their way to the door, without thinking they signed a quick “ _thank you_ ” to Habit. It was just a polite reflex, even though once they’d done it they guessed that he wouldn’t understand. Even so, they couldn’t just leave the aid he’d given towards their dental issue go unacknowledged, regardless of how unorthodox it was. To their surprise, his expression changed at this. It wasn’t the same type of confusion that they had seen when they had tried to sign to others before giving up on finding anyone who they could properly communicate with, but almost like...disbelief? “Wh...what are you thank-ing Me fore?” he asked. “Look at what I’ve done to you...ripped out nearly All your Teeth even if you had so many spares, more then likely traumatized you to some extent, probably over-dosed you with nitrous oxide... You seem like someone very willing to Forgive easily, I can understand forgive-ness, but gratitude...?”

If they had a voice, they would have gasped in surprise. Instead, all they could do was stare. “ _You know sign?_ ”

“Oh, of coarse,” Habit said, as though it were no big deal. “I use-to lose my words a Lot when I was younger, so it was handy knowledge to have once I could learn, Pardoning the Pun.” He chuckled and added, in sign, “ _I still need it from time to time._ ”

“Do you know if anyone else does?”

“Well, I asked Kamal to take some lessons in-case anything Happened while we were working,” Habit mused. “And he did, but I domt know how much he would of retained by now...” Mentally, Cosmos was kicking themself. They’d given up actively trying to sign to anyone by the time they got out into the courtyard, so of _course_ they never tried with like the one other person besides the two in this room who might know any. Just their luck. Habit cleared his throat, interrupting their mental gymnastics and asked, “So since you know I can Understand...would you mind telling me your name? I must-of missed it from your sign-up file...”

They smiled. Sure, they could leave him with that. It’d make the email he asked for a little less awkward if they had to explain that they were the Flower Kid. “ _C-O-S-M-O-S_ ”

“Cosmos...thank you,” Habit said softly. “For helping my Habititians, for helping Me, for everything. You’re quite a Star, if you don’t mind the joke.” Cosmos waved, and as they turned to leave he gently put a hand on their shoulder to stop them. “Wait, just for a little bit,” he said. “You’ll be needing some Things, I think.” He quickly popped back into the examination room, having pushed a button beside the door to open it wider for his size, and came back with a jar of cotton balls and their mask. “You more then likely still have some bleeding,” he explained, “and I imagine you wouldn’t want to leave This behind.” He opened the jar and allowed Cosmos to take as many as they figured they might need, including stuffing some extras in the pockets of their jacket just in case, and once they had that taken care of they took their mask and put it back on.

As they made their way out of Habit’s office, down the elevator, and through the now unlocked and opened front gates of the Habitat, the ache from the extraction began to spike a bit. They had no real idea how they were going to get home in a timely manner, at least not until they spotted Kamal loitering around his car, presumably waiting for them to come out safely. He seemed a lot more relaxed than he had when they’d last seen him. Maybe he had come back to check on things after he’d gotten everyone else out, maybe he’d overheard their and Habit’s conversation. Whatever the reason, they were glad they at least had a ride back home. And hey, now that they knew that he could probably understand them, maybe they could have some more in-depth conversation. Somewhat. They could ask him to pick up some proper painkillers for them, at least, and maybe after they were brought home they could convince him to return to the Habitat and have a proper talk with his old boss himself. Both men could probably use that moment of reconciliation.

They were looking forward to writing that email once they got home.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little one-shot cuz I wanted to do something featuring my Flower Kid, establishing what they’re like and why they end up basically adopting Habit as their weird uncle. I mean, he may have given them a mild-to-serious bout of PTSD from that whole ordeal, but he got rid of all their excess teeth! He’s a hero in that aspect at least! And besides, they’re a 22/22 lily ending FK, their compassion for everyone there including Habit is already pretty high from their helping everyone and learning Habit’s backstory so this probably wouldn’t’ve changed much even if all the teeth they _wanted_ to keep were extracted.
> 
> Shout-out to coelpts and their all-endings guide as my quick source for any in-game Habit dialogue I used during the teeth-pulling bit. It was also their work that inspired this whole thing in the first place, as I remember musing once on whether or not you would just keep losing teeth indefinitely during that bit if you turned off auto-advancing dialogue. They tested it and yup, that scene will go on forever if you let it. Flower Kid canonically has infinite teeth. I just made it slightly more reasonable with some bad hyperdontia. :P Also the brief Russian (in Latin lettering rather than Cyrillic, because this is from Cosmos’s perspective) that Habit speaks is, at least according to google, “Excuse me? What the hell?” I _wanted_ Habit to say “what the f***”, but google is a coward and when I re-translated it back into English it gave me hell. Literally. Either way, I figured he’d try to only swear in Russian around kids if at all, and Cosmos is 16 so they’re enough of a kid for his “I can’t say bad words near this person in a language they know that’s Illegal” switch to flick on.


End file.
